Home Office recruits unqualified civil servants to fight asylum appeals as backlog nearly doubles in two years

The Home Office is enlisting civil servants who lack legal training or any background in immigration law to represent the government in asylum appeal hearings, as it grapples with a queue of 156,000 unresolved immigration cases. Close to two-thirds of asylum seekers who contest refusals are either winning at tribunal or seeing their cases abandoned before a hearing takes place. New recruits are expected to build a "strong working knowledge" of the law while in post, with no qualifications demanded upfront. The development comes as Channel crossings have already topped 20,000 so far this year.

Among those contesting asylum refusals, 42 per cent are winning their appeals outright, while a further 22 per cent are granted refugee status before their case reaches a hearing.